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A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Coggle Diagram
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Elements of Realismo Magico
An element of Realismo Magico is the angel, he has a human apperance while still being a fantasy character because of his wings
Another element of realismo Magico is the spiderwoman. She was a normal girl before but became a spiderwoman because she disobeid her parents
Plot description
Climax: The angel seems expression less, he does not react to any of what is said or done to him. Many people come to see him.
Falling Action: The angel's fame was completely overtaken by the arrival of a spiderwoman. The wings of the angel are now almost completely destroyed so the couple decides to give him a blanket for the winter.
Rising Action: As the angel does not speak there language and does not react to what is done to him, he sits in a corner and waits as his wings get worst. His fame slowly disipates.
Resolution: The angel's wings suddenly repair themselves and the woman in the kitchen watches him try to fly and sees him finally leaving their home
Intorduction: It was a stormy and rainy night. They are trying to get the crabs out of the house while the child is sick. They hear a sound and find a strange creature in their graden.
Themes
I think that some of the main ideas that can be perceived from this short story are things like, there is still beauty within the ugly. This can be seen in the story of the angel. Even though he isn’t the prettiest of all, is still a very kind and patient person.
Another message that is conveyed is the coexistence of cruelty and empathy. This is seen through the townspeople and the couple that took care of the angel.
The theme is a mix of cruelty and empathy. I think this is the theme as the villagers don’t really want him but still keep him, feed him and give him a warm blanket for the winter. I think that the other villagers are quite cruel and insensible to the angel’s pain while the couple actually pays a bit of attention to him.
Symbols and what they represent
The spiderwoman: Her mistakes made her a spiderwoman which makes the reader learn a lesson. The angel could have been seen as a miracle where as the spiderwoman is seen as something bad that would happen to you for you to pay for your sin.
Wings: They represent the freedom of motion. They can also represent wisdom and grandeur because they are often given to angels and mythical creatures
Characterisation
Elisenda
This is Pelayo's wife. In the story she later convinces her husband to begin charging the other villagers to see the angel.
Father Gonzaga
He is the priest in the story. As having authority in the village, he takes it upon himself to decide whether or not the man is an angel or not. He is very skeptical of the man, seeing that he is all tattered and dirty.
Pelayo
He is the husband of Elisenda. He is also the man who discovers the angel too. Though he is just a normal villager, also poor, he is willing and kind to the angel, and is willing to take him into his care and responsibility for a while.
The Angel/Old Man
In the story, the angel is described as an old and tattered angel. Father Gonzaga sees that the angel is dressed like a rag picker with very few hairs on his head, and having buzzard like wings with tattered and ripped feathers, entangled in the mud.
The Spider Woman
In the story, she is the new attraction for the village. She was punished for her sins of disobeying her parents. The clear moral from her story is more appealing and understanding for the villagers, drawing more attention away from the angel.
Examples of effective descriptive writing
"She was a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden. What was most heartrending, however, was not her outlandish shape but the sincere affliction with which she recounted the details of her misfortune."
"Then he noticed that seen close up he was much too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels."
"He was dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away and sense of grandeur he might have had. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and halfplucked were forever entangled in the mud."
Setting
The setting of this story is in Pelayo and Elisenda's courtyard/backyard.